1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a cart apparatus and more particularly to self-service carts of the type used to carry bulky or heavy items such as luggage or shopping bags over significant distances such as in transportation terminals or in large shopping center complexes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The need for rugged, low-maintenance and versatile self-service carts for personalized use in large public areas is clearly evident. Modern sprawling shopping centers (such as shopping malls) and large transportation passenger terminals (such as airports or train stations) exemplify a common need for such carts, in two diverse use applications. While each such use has differing special purpose requirements (e.g. the shopping center typically requires a cart for holding a plurality of packages, while the passenger terminal requires a cart for carrying heavy and/or bulky luggage), both have many common requirements. For example, both applications often find a need for a child seat. Both require a cart that will withstand continuous day-to-day use and abuse by the public, with minimal required maintenance. Both require carts that can be readily used and accepted by the public, with minimal disruption to the business activities of the business establishment.
A number of different cart designs have been used for such applications in the past, most being special-purpose in nature. Shopping centers have typically used relatively small carts particularly intended as strollers, and offering little in the way of package carrying capability. For the most part, such strollers have, over time, become a nuisance to the business proprietors, both from maintenance and cart-distribution standpoints. Relatively few cart systems have been used successfully in transportation facilities due to a number of differing problems such as theft, unmanageability of free cart systems and cart distribution problems. With the huge traffic flow through today's busy terminals, however, the terminal baggage attendants cannot begin to handle the luggage handling needs of such establishments.
One cart system that has and is experiencing considerable success in airport terminals, and which offers the same use flexibility potential to shopping centers, is the automatic self-servicing cart vending system that provides a reward for return of the cart to strategically positioned vending islands. Such a system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,978,959, by the assignee hereof, and to the extent necessary is hereby incorporated by reference. In that system, the individual carts cooperatively engage with one another in a "nesting" relationship, enabling high packaging density in a relatively small vending island, thereby offering considerable space-saving and orderly cart distribution throughout a facility.
While the cart design disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,978,959 for use with the vending island system has displayed considerable success in passenger terminals and shopping centers, its usage has illustrated several areas in which improvements to the cart are desirable in order to improve versatility of the cart to both the shopping center and passenger terminal applications. An example of such an improved cart is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,381,870, by the assignee hereof, and to the extent necessary is hereby incorporated by reference. The cart described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,381,870 provides for a versatile cart capable of safely carrying an adult or child. However, the loading capabilities and weight distribution of such carts make them easy to tip over. These types of conventional carts provide both an upper and lower storage surfaces, and "double stacking" on both surfaces often results in an unsafe situation. In addition, it is often difficult to load packages and luggage on the lower level of conventional carts, because the upper frame structure presents an obstruction.
Previous luggage carts have had support members attached thereto for engaging the steps of an escalator. However, these support members have been positioned on the outside of the wheels of the carts and extended from the front of the cart to the back end. With such a configuration, the cart rests at the corner of the steps and not on the steps themselves. Further, because of this design, it is necessary that the luggage cart takes on a greater angle to the horizontal when it is in position on the escalator.
The present invention addresses the problems associated with the prior art designs. The design of the present invention offers a safer and more convenient cart design.